Sir Frank will miss F1's 'best passer'...

[Senna 0]

From Planetf1.com:

Sir Frank will miss F1's 'best passer'

Monday May 17 2004

When Juan Pablo Montoya leaves Williams at the end of the year the team may be sorely lacking in one of the more vital elements of racing, overtaking.

According to his team boss, Sir Frank Williams, Montoya is the best of the current F1 drivers when it comes to overtaking, and his presence will be sorely missed at the team in 2005.

"I'll be sad to see him go because he's a great driver," Sir Frank told F1 Racing.

"He has his ups and downs but the main thing is that he is a terrific driver and the best passer on the grid. He can see an overtaking opportunity like nobody else - including Michael Schumacher."

Great passer or not, though, Montoya has yet to win a race this year. However, Sir Frank believes the blame for that doesn't lie with the Colombian, rather it belongs to the team.

"He is driving better than ever this year," said Williams, "but I have got to say that we are a little disappointed by the performance of the car. I could dish out all sorts of excuses, but at the end of the day we are just not working like a true top team.

"Ferrari are supreme at the moment and another big reason is that the secret of success is no longer a secret. It used to just be Ferrari, McLaren, Benetton (now Renault) and Williams who knew how to win. But now you have the likes of BAR, with Jaguar and Toyota not far off."

"We thought we had made a good step forward from last year and I was a bit surprised at the domination of Ferrari. We made one step forward but Ferrari seem to have made two steps, which was more than disappointing for us - it was disturbing."

He added: "They are not unbeatable in a race and they will be beaten this season."

However, Sir Frank does concede that the Championship "may well be all over unless they have some bad luck. But we need to put in a lot of hard work and not panic."

[nojvnof1 0]

When I saw this headline I thought he was talking about Jacques!! :wink: It's ok Frank, Jacques will ease the pain!!

[webber 0]

i dont know i think that JPM is better than JV in that part of racing. but some times JPM does pull them out of his a## os JV might just be the happy middle

[nojvnof1 0]

JPM is a very good passer, no doubt, but the man whose made the most moves on M$ is DC. I remember one year where he passed him at the hairpin at Magny Cours, he gave him the finger than another hand gesture. JPM said recently that when you have JV behind you, you always know he's gonna try and pass. JV's made some blinding moves though, Estoril '96, Jerez '97 are two off the top of my head, but JPM has made some very good moves, Nurburgring last year, he best by far and up there with JV's move on M$ at Estoril. JV and JPM both great passers, but DC beats them both for consistency.